Private donations to the University of California, Irvine reached a record $87.9 million for the fiscal year ended June 30. The figure marks a 77% increase in donations from the previous fiscal year.
Most of the support came from individuals, including Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan. The Samuelis donated a total of $25.7 million to UCI’s School of Engineering and its College of Medicine.
The Samuelis’ $20 million gift to the engineering school is the single largest donation in the university’s history. UCI has renamed the school The Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
“The university receives about a quarter of its annual operating budget from the state, so the quality of the institution increasingly depends on other sources of revenue,” said Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone. “Private dollars enable us to build the facilities, recruit the faculty and support the students that allow us to maintain our place as one of the nation’s premier research universities.”
